IPL Fantasy 2023: What's new this season? | IPL Fantasy Tips

The official season-long IPL Fantasy game returns for IPL 2023 ahead of the opening clash between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on Friday (March 31). The highly popular game is powered by the Dream11 engine, with not much changing in terms of the general structure and rules of the game.

For those unfamiliar with them, IPL Fantasy is a game of endurance, with constant attention required for all 74 games. Managing your transfers and always keeping the schedule in mind and thinking ahead when making your moves are necessary.

With the basics out of the way, let's take a look at a few tweaks and minor rule changes in the game and some new introductions, and how they will impact IPL Fantasy managers.

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#1 Net Transfers

This is an extremely useful update to the rules for various reasons. One can make unlimited transfers ahead of a game's deadline, with only the net transfers getting calculated in the end.

That will allow IPL Fantasy managers to tinker with their teams ahead of the deadline without the fear of accidentally confirming the transfers and losing them.

That will also allow you to make early transfers and keep your players ready for a game in case you're unable to make transfers post the toss for any reason. However, if you set a contingency team but want to change it after the toss, you can do so as well without losing any extra transfers.

Basically, what that does is gives complete freedom of thought to IPL Fantasy managers ahead of a deadline, with only the final locked-in team before the deadline counting.

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#2 Different Boosters

Last season, we had a slew of boosters that were supposed to be used at specific times of the season. All those extra boosters have been removed this season, with two new ones getting added.

Apart from the usual Triple Impact, 2X and Super Transfers Booster, we now have the 'Power Overseas Player' booster and the 'Power Indian Player' to use. Using the boosters will double the scores of Overseas and Indian players in the team.

While there's a limit on the number of overseas players you can select in your team, there's no such limit for Indian players. So, if it's played right, there's an opportunity to use the Power Indian Player booster as another 2X booster.

Unlike last season, there's no guideline about when we can use these boosters, which allows planning it according based on your team. Make sure to maximise the booster by captaining the right player, as their points essentially get quadrupled.

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#3 No split in transfers between group stage and playoffs

Unlike previous editions of IPL Fantasy where the game automatically limited the group stage to 130 or 140 transfers and reserved ten transfers for the playoffs, IPL Fantasy managers will have a total of 150 transfers to use throughout the season. That means there won't be any unlimited transfers between the group stage and the playoffs to remove players from teams who haven't qualified for the playoffs.

IPL Fantasy managers need to manage their transfers more wisely because of that and ensure that they have enough transfers to move through the playoffs seamlessly.

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#4 Impact players

No one's really sure about how this rule would pan out, with DC's Ricky Ponting and MI's Rohit Sharma having fairly contrasting views about them. As an IPL Fantasy manager, my main concern is: will this rule reduce the power of all-rounders as a fantasy cricket option?

The rule seems to suit teams who play specialist batters and bowlers because they can simply swap one out for the other as the situation demands. All-rounders have always been gold in T20 cricket, and the same applies to Fantasy cricket, as they have multiple routes to points.

Another factor to consider is the impact player themselves. Teams have to provide a four-name shortlist along with their playing XI, and the impact player can be chosen from those four names. Such a player will get appearance points and other scoring avenues for any actions they perform on the field.

There's no guessing how this rule will impact the game, so it's going to be an exciting next few weeks to see how this pans out.